Sylvia

When I worked at Macy's, a lady came from Augusta to work in Columbia, and her name was Sylvia. She had a hard time in Columbia at first. People thought she was standoffish or rude. Her job was Human Resources and Operations. I went to a meeting in Augusta with her, and all of her former employees hugged her. I realized that there was more to Sylvia than others knew. At one point, she was accused of showing favoritism to one race over another. I never saw it, but others seemed to. But, there was one thing about Sylvia that no one else knew--she cared. When her father was dying, she never let others see her pain, but when my mother was dying, we had a common bond. When she died, Sylvia came to the visitation. Despite feeling left out and alone, I knew she came, because she cared. When I was going through my financial problems (and still am), I would have to go to Atlanta for business meetings and stay overnight. I could not possibly afford either the rental car or hotel. Sylvia took care of both. She got reimbursed, but she cared. A lot of people wouldn't have done that. When I got down there once and thought the room had been paid for, and it hadn't, I called Sylvia at home, and she took care of it. When my depression was affecting my job, Sylvia listened to my struggles. In December, our maintenance man Jim died. It was quite a shock. At the funeral, Sylvia was the only manager from our store that came to the funeral. I sat next to her. She came, because she cared. Sylvia is leaving our store tomorrow. I don't know where she is going, but I know that her travels will take her somewhere that people will see her as a caring person. Thanks Sylvia for everything.